Six months ago if Alex Lees had pictured himself playing for England this winter, it would not have been on a Lions tour of Sri Lanka. Promoted to the Test side for the trip to West Indies last March he opened the batting throughout the summer, ears ringing with the praise of his captain and boosted by Brendon McCullum’s insistence that he would “be really consistent with selections and keep giving guys opportunities”. But though his run of games brought two half-centuries there were also seven single-digit scores, and when the call came before the recent Test tour of Pakistan, it was to inform him that he was out. He describes his last year as “a little bit bittersweet”, and that moment was very much the bitter.
“I think it’s human nature. If anybody has some news they’re not particularly happy with, in sport or life, there’s a natural distaste in your mouth,” the Durham batter says. “I’m sure I wasn’t amazing to be around for a couple of weeks. But those kind of things ground you and give you a good perspective on life. And what can you do? It’s happened and you can’t affect it. You’ve got to get your head down and move forward.
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“I wasn’t a dead cert to go to Pakistan. I’m not naive with that. It wasn’t like it was definitely not on my radar that it was a possibility. They had given us some encouraging support throughout the summer, but unfortunately it’s part of sport. Now, really, my focus is trying to get back into that environment. Then if I do get back into that environment, it’s nailing that position – which I didn’t do this summer.”
In truth Lees seemed an awkward fit for the ultra-positive new-look Test side Ben Stokes and McCullum are fashioning. He kept his place in the team last summer despite the fact that in the last decade no Englishman – and only two people in the entire world – has scored 100 or more runs in a Test series more slowly than Lees did in the West Indies last year, across the last three games of Joe Root’s captaincy.
“You’re just trying to buy into whatever the team’s philosophy is,” he says. “When I made my debut in the West Indies there was a big importance on first-innings runs no matter how slow or how long it takes to get them. So I was just trying to play in line with what the team ethos was at the time of each tour.”
The style of batting that England have since become associated with is, he says, “probably something I hadn’t played for a little bit of a while just due to the wickets not being that great in county cricket the previous few years … but I think the start of my career I probably played in that manner. So I think referring back, naturally I didn’t feel too bad.”
Lees has been instructed “to go away and keep developing my game and keep trying to play in a manner in which that Test team is now playing”, and the feeling is that during the two Tests England Lions will play against Sri Lanka A in Galle starting on 31 January – and from there throughout this year’s County Championship – a lot of batters will do the same.
“Everyone will try to play in that manner to some extent,” he says. “The county system isn’t just about individual domestic teams winning the trophies, it’s about producing players for England and making England better. I think we will see a shift. Even if not a full team shift, at a bare minimum you will see individuals in those teams making that shift if they have aspirations to play for England. The days of scoring 100 at a 40 strike rate are gone.”
Shubman Gill became the eighth and youngest man to score an ODI double century as India survived a thrilling counterattack from New Zealand’s Michael Bracewell to win their series opener in Hyderabad.
The 23-year-old smashed 208 off 149 balls to take the record from compatriot Ishan Kishan, who has held it for less than a month following his own exploits against Bangladesh.
Gill opened the batting with Rohit Sharma, who is responsible for three of the 10 double centuries in men’s ODI cricket, and dominated the Black Caps bowlers with nine sixes and 19 fours. India posted 349 for eight, with Rohit (34) and Suryakumar Yadav (31) offering support, and looked to be coasting to victory in the field.
The tourists looked to be going nowhere as they meandered to 112 for five at the halfway stage. But Bracewell performed wonders from No 7, blazing to a thrilling 140 in just 78 balls.
He was eventually trapped lbw by Shardul Thakur with four deliveries left, allowing India to close out a 12-run win that owed much to Mohammed Siraj’s four for 46. PA Media
Mo Bobat, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s performance director, specifically discussed 29-year-old Lees with McCullum and Stokes before selecting him as the oldest member of the Lions Test squad for Sri Lanka. “They were quite keen to see him have another opportunity,” Bobat says. “He can build on what he learned having had a taste of it. Maybe he can demonstrate a greater level of readiness for the England environment and bang on the door again.”
That is certainly the player’s plan, with this summer’s Ashes the target. “It is still my ambition to play Test cricket and once you experience something, and you like doing it, you want to do more of it,” he says. “I’d love to be involved in an Ashes series at some point in my career. There’s a lot of time between now and then and in sport things can change quite quickly. I’ll try and keep my head, try and get my runs and see where we’re at.”
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